“Claw me, and you'll be medium-rare and full of regret.”
In one leap, he lands on my lap, nailing my balls with unholy precision.I jerk underneath the painful impact, and Lucifer lets out a pissed off sound over his landing spot moving. He scrambles up on the back of the couch, hisses at me, then disappears somewhere into the apartment.
I’m left clutching my boys and wondering who will break me first. Aurora or the damn devil cat.
Chapter 6
From Kiss to Curse
TALON
6 Years Ago
The girl with pink hair sits on a boulder in the middle of the creek with her back to me. The sun shines through the rustling leaves of the massive trees overhead, throwing dappled rays on the soft cotton candy curls trailing to her waist. The water glitters under the same light, rushing loudly so she can’t hear me approach.
I sigh heavily as I stalk toward the girl.
I don’t want to get involved. I just want to be left alone.
But the Rosari King and Queen had me tracked down at great expense and effort, so they could plead with me to hear their case. Their daughter needs protection they can’t give her. Protection and help only I can provide.
I told them I wasn’t interested and that they’d wasted their time.
I’d been ready to turn and fly off to continue traveling the Realms, always alone, never staying in one place.
“Just meet her. Please.” The queen’s eyes had been glassy with unshed tears, her knuckles white from her fingersinterlacing too tightly. The king held her shoulder with what looked like a vise grip. As if I were the last thread of hope they were clinging to.
My insides pinched, and something itched under my skin at all the exposed emotion, until I heard myself agree to the Queen’s request.
Making my way along the bankside, I try to make sure the princess sees me long before I get to her. The teenager’s shoulders tense when she catches me in her peripheral vision. Something about the movement strikes something inside me. The same soft spot her mother hit with her pleas.
I pause several yards away, sticking my hands in my pockets. It’s too hot to be wearing my jacket, but it’s a shield I need to keep wrapped around myself so I can extract myself as soon as possible.
“Who are you?”
Her shout is a challenge, a warning. She’s so painfully seventeen. I’ve only got a couple of years on her, but I’ve never had the luxury of being a teenager. The entitled, fiery defensiveness that wards off everyone with a silent dare is clear. Yet beneath the surface, there is a desperate plea.
Don’t leave me.
I shouldn’t be here. I don’t belong with others. I’m meant to be by myself, always alone. Or at least that’s what makes sense when you are the only one of your kind.
“Your parents sent me.” I yell out over the rushing water. “They wanted me to talk to you.”
The tenseness in her posture slips away. “Oh,” I see rather than hear her say. “You’re the Dragon,” she says, raising her voice enough for me to hear this time.
As she twists to get a better look at me, I also see her fully for the first time. My heart stops in my chest as one of the fae lords reaches down into my lungs and rips the breath right out of me.
She’s beautiful.
No, beautiful doesn’t begin to describe this girl. Eyes that remind me of the pale shimmer of snow over stone are set against skin that shimmers faintly, as if dusted in powdered gold. Her lips are full and perfect. Even her eyebrows are perfect, a feature I’d never given any thought to before.
Under the perfect angles of her face and her full strawberry-tinted lips, there’s a low thrum of energy I can almost see, like heat rising off pavement. It warps the air at her edges, but I know it’s not visible to anyone else.
There’s a tug in my chest. A sharp awareness in my spine. Her magic doesn’t just shimmer—it reaches. Not aggressively. Just…enough to pull you closer if you’re not careful.
My Dragon sees the sexual draw of her energy clashing with the awkward teenage self-consciousness that is wrapped around her bones. It’s likely to remain that way for several more seasons.
The princesses' face tightens with a stricken expression, and she draws her arms in tight, shielding herself. Some of my admiration or surprise must have slipped through.
